Client devices in a television-based entertainment system can be viewer enabled to record broadcast programs such as television shows, movies, sporting events, and similar broadcast video content. A program guide can be displayed on a television connected to a client device to display program information such as a program title, the associated local channel number, and a time of the day that the program will be broadcast. A viewer can select to view the program if it is currently being broadcast, access program data to learn more about the program, and/or enter a request to record the program.
When a viewer schedules, or otherwise requests, a record event at a client device to record a particular program, the client device records the program when it is broadcast and stores the recorded program so that the viewer may watch the program in its entirety at a later time. However, quite often a viewer will begin watching a program and, after the broadcast of the program has started, decide to record the program. This type of impulse record request results in the client device recording the remainder of the program as it is broadcast. The recorded program, however, is incomplete because a beginning segment of the program, before the viewer decided to initiate the recording, is not recorded.
In addition to a program recording being incomplete due to an impulse record request, a program recording can be incomplete because a scheduled recording of the program is interrupted, either because a viewer stops the recording before the program broadcast is complete, or because system resources became unavailable to continue with the recording. Further, a program recording may be incomplete due to system power failure, due to a loss of the broadcast communication, or due to any number of other interruption events not within a viewer's control. A television viewer expecting to have recorded a particular program in its entirety will be disappointed to find that the recording of the program is incomplete and will not be able to watch the entire program.
Accordingly, for television-based entertainment systems, there is a need for techniques to automatically complete a program recording that has been only partially recorded and/or interrupted resulting in an incomplete recording of a requested program.